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Ash and his friends Iris and Cilan have foiled Team Rocket's latest evil plan, and a new danger lurks on the horizon! But first, with eight Gym badges in hand, Ash is ready to take on the region's ultimate challenge: the Unova League, where he'll face familiar rivals and new opponents in his ongoing quest to become a Pokémon Master! Meanwhile, Iris has been having some trouble connecting with her powerful and stubborn Dragonite—can a visit home to the Village of Dragons help sort things out for the aspiring Dragon Master? And what exciting new adventures await our heroes beyond the Unova League? The answers to come, as the journey continues! Episodes 1-25

The Episodes

As many longtime viewers of the Pokemon anime will know, when Ash and his friends reach a Pokemon League it’s usually a sign that the season is drawing to a close and the show will soon shift to a new region. The series tries something different here and the results are rather mixed.

Due to the Pokemon League episodes usually being towards the end of a Pokemon season, they’re normally the crux of a lot of ongoing storyline resolutions and accompanied by better than average animation and intense Pokemon battles. While several character arcs do come to a close here, there is very little sense of finality with the Unova League feeling more like something the writers just wanted to get out of the way so they can get to the more interesting episodes that follow.

Thankfully the episodes that follow more than make up for the disappointing Unova League arc with a more energetic vibe and an increased focus on character building and philosophy, which has been missing from the Pokemon franchise for a long while.

In addition to several long overdue episodes that deal with Iris’ past, present and future in the Pokemon anime cannon, the true highlight of these 25 episodes is the introduction of the fan-favorite character, N who finally asks questions that viewers have been wondering for years such as “What are Pokemon?” and “Where do they come from?” This introduction of such a philosophical character breathes new life into a series that had been playing it far too safe with the usual Pokemon League storylines in recent years and the shift to a more serialized storytelling style, however temporary, is a welcome change.

DVD and Special Features

As far as anime releases go, Pokemon Black and White: Adventures in Unova really does give Pokemon fans good value for money. There may not be any special features but with 25 episodes from the popular anime series (over 9 hours of Pokemon!) it’s hard to complain.

It is unfortunate that there’s no Blu-ray release of the Pokemon anime but due to how recently these episodes were produced, the picture and audio quality is surprisingly crisp and even impresses at times.

The DVD packaging features an understated black and white color theme with its black plastic case and duotone background design on the case cover and disks. A lot of anime series simply get generic DVD cases and disk art these days so it’s nice to see some effort put into creating such a cohesive design element that helps distinguish the Pokemon episodes set in Unova from the other regions in previous Pokemon DVD sets.

Who Should Watch?

The Pokemon series really is an all-ages anime that should appeal to younger children, adult fans who have been following the franchise for the last 15 or so years and everyone in between. The innocent character designs and low level physical violence make Pokemon a fantastic anime for parents to leave their children alone with and the nine hours of content in this set should keep them busy for a long time. Read more about the Pokemon franchise here.

Overall

Pokemon Black and White: Adventures in Unova closes off the usual Pokemon League story arc with very little fanfare but quickly shifts gears into much more interesting territory as the characters explore Unova and encounter the mysterious N who questions the role of the Pokemon Trainers and the very existence of the Pokemon creatures themselves.

A great gift idea for kids and a must-buy for older Pokemon fans.

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Disclosure: A review copy was provided by VIZ Media. For more information, please see our Ethics Policy. The DVD featured in this review is the Region 1 DVD release by VIZ Media. Alternate releases are available in other regions.